RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Far-right opposition to Moscow patriarch's actions

PATRIARCH KIRILL BEING SAVED FOR "MILITARY" SERVICE

by Andrei Melnikov

Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 7 June 2020

 

The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, for the first time in many years, did not serve the liturgy on Trinity Sunday in the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra. This is one of the most important dates on the calendar of Orthodox Christians and therefore many believers were surprised that Patriarch Kirill spent the feast day in a church close to his residence in Peredelkino. Just before Trinity, many churches opened for parishioners after the long quarantine.

 

On the official website of the Moscow patriarchate it is said that "the decision regarding the worship service in the skete on this great twelfth feast was made at the insistence of doctors, in light of the dedication by His Holiness of the chief church of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation that is scheduled for 22 June of this year." Of course, in the depths of the powerful movement of disagreement with the policies of the Moscow patriarchate, which grew during the pandemic, there immediately appeared discontent with the caution of the patriarch.

 

Religious zealots accuse the head of the RPTs of allegedly replacing Christian values with the "statist cult," since on Trinity he is afraid of appearing before believers although he honors with his presence the event in which military commanders and state officials are participating. For these critics, of course, the fact that the St. Sergius Holy Trinity lavra is closed, even on its patronal holiday, because of the large outbreak of the coronavirus infection in the cloister does not work as an argument. According to some reports, the famed monastery will open its gates for pilgrims no sooner than 15 June.

 

Meanwhile the radical conservatives in "the depths of church folk" have suffered a loss. Saturday night the schearchimandrite Peter died in his 94th year. He was a very contradictory personality. On one hand, he was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. On the other hand he was a devotee simultaneously of Nicholas II and Stalin and a zealous fighter against the INN [Taxpayer Identification Number] and passports of the new style. The peak of the "elder's: activity came in the 1990s and 2000s, when he founded the community of the Holy Bogoliubovo convent in Vladimir oblast. It was with this community that the noisy scandals of 2009-2010 were connected, when the teachers of the orphanage in the convent were accused of cruel treatment of young inhabitants. Under pressure from rights advocates, Peter was retired in 2010, and last month he even took the great schema.

 

Whereas a decade ago the Moscow patriarchate tried by all means to shield followers of "elders" like Peter and to protect them from pressure from the authorities, recently the obscurantists have been annoying hierarchs and administrators of the RPTs. On Thursday it was learned that the Center for Combating Extremism of the M.V.D. directorate for Sverdlovsk oblast identified indicators of administrative violation of law in the actions of Schehegumen Sergius because of his preaching on the internal where he cursed those who close churches during the pandemic. This is the way law enforcers responded to the inquiry of one citizen. The case of Sergius was submitted to the local prosecutor's office. The schehegumen awaits a church trial also, and before this the diocese has consequently deprived him of the right to preach and to minister. Sergius is no less zealous than Peter, a fighter for the most conservative values. He also served as the spiritual director of the convent community he founded, fought against the INN, and to top it off in accordance with the trends of the times also against the "chipping" in the guise of vaccination against the coronavirus. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 June 2020)


Background articles:
Discord in Orthodox church over lockdown restrictions
April 27, 2020

Controversy in Russia over church of the military
April 24, 2020

Russian church in Moldova clashes with civil government over pandemic
May 21, 2020


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